Business, health, political leaders digest Medicaid expansion issues

-- Extending the Medicaid expansion program is important for both businesses and people receiving health care, according to speakers at a legislative breakfast Monday.

"This is a game changer for Manchester," said Anna Thomas, the city's deputy public health director.

Medicaid expansion provides health-care coverage for about 7,500 city residents.

"I know for a fact that it absolutely is changing the trajectory for so many residents who otherwise would have been in much worse situations," she said. "Their health outcomes would have been poorer."

The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce hosted a legislative breakfast for about 25 people to discuss Medicaid expansion, which provides federal funds to cover more than 50,000 people without health care.

The Legislature is considering a bill to renew Medicaid expansion, which is scheduled to end at year's end.

Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, D-Manchester, said issues that need to be ironed out include a work or community-service requirement for certain participants and agreement on funding the state's share, which climbs to 10 percent by 2020.

"What I'm being told is that there is confusion and controversy in the House," D'Allesandro said. "There is a strong group in the House that's adamantly opposed to reauthorization, and they're going to battle it."

D'Allesandro said the state has received about $1.2 billion under Medicaid expansion.

"A lot of lives have been saved; a lot of lives have been made better," he said.

New Hampshire is one of 33 states that expanded eligibility for Medicaid to cover a larger portion of the population through the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

The current bill includes work or community-service requirements for certain participants and conversion of the program to an HMO-style managed-care approach.

"It's critical in our community that we keep this going," said Mayor Joyce Craig, who said the program provides money to treat people with substance abuse issues.

Mike Skelton, the chamber's president and CEO, said Medicaid expansion would save hospitals money now devoted to uncompensated care, which "should help put downward pressure on health-care premiums, which all of our members pay."

"I hear every day about how many small businesses struggle to keep up with their health-insurance premiums, their health-care costs overall," Skelton said.

Business Health Politics New Hampshire

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